The Lutheran Hour
-
"All?"
- Download MP3 No bonus material MP3
-
Text: Text: Colossians 2:13b
-
Christ is risen! He is risen, indeed! The empty tomb tells us that the crucified Christ has successfully conquered sin, death, and devil. This day and every day, our living Lord shows us that all who believe on Him are alive and forgiven of all their sins.
The little boy at the shopping mall appeared to be lost. Standing in the doorway leading to a large department store, he cried inconsolably. “I want my mommy. I want my mommy!” He repeated his heart-torn plea again and again. Those coming into the store, as well as those leaving the store, felt sorry for him. Some passersby, desiring to provide comfort, gave the boy a quarter or some gum or candy. Eventually, a salesperson came up to the troubled tyke and said, “I think I know where your mommy is.” The little boy looked up, tears still streaming down his cheeks, and whispered, “So do I. I spotted her a few minutes ago. But don’t tell anybody, I’ve got a good thing going here!” This message is also not for people who are, like that little boy, perfectly content with who they are and what they’re doing.
In 1900, Mark Twain gave a speech before the Society of American Authors. During that address he confessed, “I am constructed like everybody else and enjoy a compliment as well as any other fool, but I do… have… another side. I have a wicked side. Estimable friends who know all about it would tell you, and take a certain delight in telling you, things I have done and things further that I have not repented. The real life that I live, and the real life that I suppose all of you live, is a life of interior sin.” This sermon is not for people like Mark Twain who feel fine about their wicked side; who do wrong and refuse to repent; who are pretty proud of their “interior sin.”
I mean, if you’re the kind of person who feels good about yourself because you’ve been getting away with undermining co-workers and your employer at work, who, without remorse, abuse your spouse, neglect your children and con your neighbors, then I don’t think this message will have much to say to you. If you’re content with putting things over on those you consider to be dumb and dense, I can only encourage you to tune in to “The Lutheran Hour” next week. If you think of life as survival of the fittest, and you consider yourself to be at the top of the food chain and everybody else is your prey, then do yourself a favor. Don’t waste the rest of this half-hour. Listen to another program. Come back next week, and we’ll probably have something to say to you.
Are you still there? Good. I’m glad. If you’re still listening I would imagine it’s because you are not content with who you are. If your radio is still carrying my voice, it is because you feel, somehow, someway, your life ought to be changed. If you’re still paying attention, it may be because you agree with another thing that Mark Twain said, “Everyone is a moon and has a dark side, which he never shows to anybody.” If you’re still listening, it’s because you have a dark side, a side which you like to keep under wraps, hidden away. You are not pleased with who you are. You know you should be different, but you’re just not sure how any change can happen.
I have to confess, this is one of those Sundays where I wish you were in the studio with me. I wish I could look into your eyes and get an indication of what you’re thinking. This is a day when I wish I could talk very quietly to each of you. You see, each of us has a different dark side. Years ago I was with a Christian man who was dying. He was a good man, by my eye, one of the best. In his last days he said he had to get something off his chest. He told me how, when he was young, maybe 75 years earlier, he and a friend had switched the arrows at a country crossroads. That was his great sin. Not so big? Maybe not for you. His sin isn’t yours. Yours isn’t mine. Mine isn’t anybody else’s. But his youthful sin had, for decades, caused that man a great deal of pain. He had, for almost three- quarters of a century, been burdened by what he had done. As he said, “I’ve often wondered, Reverend, how many people went down the wrong road because of me?”
So, what’s your sin? You don’t have to say it out loud. Just listen. If you’re listening with someone else, maybe a spouse, a friend, a child, you can even pretend that what I’m saying isn’t touching you at all. You know what you’ve done. You know your secret sin. Maybe it was something you got away with and nobody else knows what you did. But you know. You know, don’t you? If I was with you, I would probably see a brief flash in the window of your eye, before you quickly pulled down the curtain of protection. Well, it’s not important that I know. You know, and that knowledge saddens, maybe sickens you. You’re not who people think you are, are you? If they only knew. Their feelings about you would change, wouldn’t they? What is it you’ve done? What makes you ashamed to be you?
If you understand what I’m talking about, let me share with you some of the ways you’ve probably tried to get rid of your sin and its shame. See if any of these seem familiar. You promised yourself you would never do it again. You promised, you may even have kept that promise. Keeping your promise may have made life bearable, but it didn’t take away what you had done wrong. You knew what was inside you, what you were capable of. Maybe, as you thought about what you had done wrong, you tried to punish yourself. If you were sorry and sad long enough, maybe that would be the proper penance.
Possibly you decided to blame someone else. People try that all the time. “My environment, my situation, my circumstance made me do what I’ve done. I didn’t have a choice. The devil, my parents, made me do it. And besides, everybody else does what I’ve done, and some have done a whole lot worse.” Sounds silly, doesn’t it? Perhaps you decided to take your mind off your problems by getting really busy. Throw yourself into work, into new relationships, create a tornado of stuff that needs to be done. “That’s the trick,” you said. But it wasn’t the trick. Have you tried alcohol or drugs? That only made things worse. Have you contemplated suicide? No, you don’t have to give an answer. But I know suicide can seem like a successful solution. At least you wouldn’t have to think about what you’ve done wrong anymore. Of course, you know and I know that suicide doesn’t end the problem. It just gives it to someone else.
Yes, all of us have a dark side that we try not to show to anyone else. All of us have a dark side, a sinful side which prods and pains us. All of us have a dark stain on our souls that our home cleaning remedies just can’t touch. All of us have a dark side, and no human preparation can provide a cure. Why is that? Why do we feel so bad? It is because we are sinners. We’re not just lonely people in need of a friend; weak people who need to borrow a strong arm; ignorant people in need of education; lost people in need of direction. We are sinners who need a Savior; we are the lonely in need of Divine Love; we are the lost who need a Shepherd to lead us; we are the sick of soul that need a spiritual Physician; we are the damned who need a Deliverer. Nothing else can calm the sick feeling in our stomachs; can fill the hole that is in our soul. Nothing other than Jesus. In Jesus, God makes us alive. In Jesus, God forgives us all our sins. That’s what St. Paul said to the church in Colosse. That is what God says to you today. In Jesus, God takes away death, literally and figuratively, and makes you alive. In Jesus, your sins are forgiven. All your sins are forgiven. Yes, even that special sin is forgiven.
Now, I know that I’m talking to a great many Christians today. You’ve been listening because you’ve been able to understand what I’m saying. You wanted to hear what I was saying because, even though you know Jesus, you can still have that gut-wrenching feeling of guilt. Please don’t turn off this broadcast. I’ll be speaking just to you in a moment. First, let me explain to the others, the ones who don’t know Jesus, and what He has done for them.
The mother of a 9-year-old boy got a call from her son’s teacher. That is normally not a good thing. Preparing herself for the worst, Mom listened as the teacher said, “Today I saw something unusual, and I wanted to tell you about it.” That wasn’t much better. The teacher continued. “Early today, during our creative writing class, I gave an assignment. I began by telling Aesop’s story of the ant and the grasshopper. You know the tale: the ant works hard, the grasshopper fiddles away the time. When winter comes, the ant has enough to eat and the grasshopper asks for a handout. I asked the children to finish the story. Most of the class wrote, ‘the ant shared and both lived happily ever after.’ A few had the ant saying, ‘Sorry, Mr. Grasshopper, I only have enough for myself. If I share, we will both starve.’ But your son ended the story in a unique way. His story ended, ‘The ant gave all of his food to the grasshopper, and the grasshopper lived happily ever after, but the ant died.’ At the bottom of his assignment, your son drew a cross.” The teacher ended, “I thought you might want to know.”
Great story, isn’t it? That story is the unfinished story of every one of us. We are the grasshoppers who have sinned, who have squandered our summers in pursuit of things trivial and trite. Most of us realize winter is coming, a time when we’ll have to answer for what we’ve done wrong. That’s scary. The only question is, “How will our story end?” Some philosophers will tell you that each of us must fend for ourselves. They will tell you that you are on your own. If you have committed a terrible sin, learn to live with it, forget it, or deny it. That attitude leads to death. Most of the world’s religions conclude the story with a god who will be generous, maybe. If you work hard, if you try to do the best you can, maybe, just maybe you might be all right. Of course, you can’t be sure when you’ve done enough. That’s no help, either. Only Christianity says that God came down and took your place. Only Christianity speaks of a Savior who endured hunger so we would be filled; went without an earthly home, so that we might have a heavenly home; suffered so we could be saved; died so that we might live. Jesus took our place. Jesus gave up all so you might have all. Only Christianity has the story end with us having our sins, every one of our sins, the worst, the most heinous, the most private and pathetic of our sins forgiven. Only Christianity promises, with faith in the Crucified and resurrected and ever- living Savior, we will live happily ever after.
The Spirit inspired it. Paul wrote it. You can believe it: “God made us alive in Jesus Christ. In Christ we are forgiven all our sins.” All? All! There is no exception. There is no small print; there is no exemption, omission or exclusion. Those who have faith in Jesus as their Savior are forgiven. Now it’s not possible for me to go into great detail, but “The Lutheran Hour” has people who stand ready to help introduce you to this Savior who has take away all, and I mean all of your sins. Call us at the number we will give before the end of the broadcast. Please, do not postpone that call. Don’t put it off. You’ve carried your private burden long enough. If you’re with someone and don’t want to be embarrassed by making the call now, write down the number, remember the number. We will be here all week, just as we’ve been here for 75 years. We want people to know Christ who forgives all their sins.
Now, to those of you who already know Jesus, who know He died to take away the world’s sins, but who also believe that by some sort of silly or sad circumstance, missed your private or personal sin, I need to say a few words. Years ago I called upon one of my members who had lost a leg to diabetes. As I visited him, he told me that he was experiencing phantom pain. Phantom pain was a new concept to me. I looked it up. I learned amputees often have very real pain or feeling, coming from a limb which has been removed. Their minds tells them their missing hand can make a fist; the lost leg can hold their weight; their missing finger needs to be itched; the amputated foot is hurting.
In the same way, I know Christians who have a spiritual phantom pain. They feel convicted by a sin that God had long since taken away. Their spiritual phantom pain is very real, although the sin is not. The sin is gone, as far as the east is from the west, it is gone. The Bible tells us, ‘There is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus” (Romans 8:1). The Bible goes out of its way to inform us, “the blood of Jesus, his Son, purifies us from all sin” (1 John 1:7). Without qualification or restriction, without condition, limitation or hesitation, the Bible tells us we can commit no sin that is stronger than the Savior’s blood-bought forgiveness. If your repentant heart still doesn’t “feel forgiven,” be sure that feeling comes from Satan and not from your Savior.
So what can you do? You’ve carried around that sin for too long; it may even have become a part of you. God’s Word reassures you of this fact, that all of your sins are forgiven. Christ’s death, Christ’s resurrection on the third day assures you that your sins are forgiven. Try this: make a mental picture of your sin. I know that sin’s not a pretty sight but do it anyway. Make a picture of your sin, put your sin on a mental table in front of you, and see what Jesus does to your sin. Picture His nail-pierced hands reaching for your phantom sin. Watch as He effortlessly tears it, rips it, throws it on the floor and grinds it into the dust. That is what Jesus has done on the cross. That is what He does for you, right now. Every time that phantom sin shows up, watch your Savior destroy it. With faith in Christ, you are forgiven. Believe it. God has made you alive with Christ. God, in Jesus, forgives you all your sins. Amen.
Lutheran Hour Mailbox (Questions & Answers) for August 8, 2004
Topic: Should I Bother God With My Prayers?ANNOUNCER: And now, Pastor Ken Klaus answers a listener’s question about prayer as it relates to God’s will. I’m Mark Eischer. Pastor Klaus, God tells us we should pray for the things we need; however, a listener wants to know, if she trusts in God’s will, then who is she to ask for something that God hasn’t already given to her?
KLAUS: Good question. Too many people live as if God were a distant bystander who has no concern for them or the things that are going on in their lives. I really give thanks for this person’s respect for the Lord. Too many people believe that God is so involved with the big picture of the world, that He can’t or shouldn’t be bothered with the petty details of their life. God, being all-knowing and all-powerful, has the capacity to cover it all.
ANNOUNCER: And that’s why our listener says we’re supposed to trust God’s will.
KLAUS: Absolutely. She’s to be commended. She’s not treating God like He’s the pizza guy who takes an order for what she wants. We aren’t God’s bosses. This lady is recognizing that God has a direction, a good direction, for her life. In fact, her question really comes from the intensity of that respect she has for the Lord’s will. She doesn’t want to do anything that’s going to override the Lord.
ANNOUNCER: But can a person really do that through prayer? Can we take the reins out of God’s hands?
KLAUS: If you’re asking Mark, whether we have the power to force God to do something that isn’t according to His plan, the answer is no. God isn’t our lackey. In truth, there are some kinds of prayers that are so wrong that God will ignore them.
ANNOUNCER: And is it the strength of our faith that motivates God to do something?
KLAUS: People would almost come to believe that, if they listened to some of the faith healers. I’ve heard some of them say a miracle couldn’t take place because an individual’s faith wasn’t strong enough. That’s not so. The Bible records miracles taking place where faith was almost non-existent. Look at the children of Israel when they were being pursued by Pharaoh. At that point, their faith was almost non-existent; still, God parted the waters of the Red Sea for them to go across. If anything, in that case, faith came about as a result of what God did.
ANNOUNCER: So in summary, our listener can be assured that God isn’t going to be convinced to do something He doesn’t really want to do.
KLAUS: Yes.
ANNOUNCER: Originally she said, “Who are we then to ask for something that God, in His wisdom, has not seen fit to give us?”
KLAUS: Now we’re getting to the heart of the thing. Who is she? She is one of God’s adopted, baptized, redeemed children, one of God’s beloved family members. She is, before God, a little child. Good parents are always glad to have their children come to them with matters big and small. Take you for example, Mark. Did you want your children to come to you for things when they were little?
ANNOUNCER: Sure.
KLAUS: Could they convince you to give them something which was wrong or hurtful to them?
ANNOUNCER: No.
KLAUS: So, too, our heavenly Father responds to us. Jesus said exactly that in Matthew 7:11, “If you, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give good gifts to those who ask Him!”
ANNOUNCER: In prayer, what is our part, if any?
KLAUS: We’re children, coming to our wiser, more powerful Father. In coming to Him, we’re recognizing that He’s the Giver of every good and perfect gift.
ANNOUNCER: Now let’s suppose many people hearing what we’ve just said might challenge us by saying, “Well, if that’s how it is, why should we really bother to ask God for anything?”
KLAUS: First, we’re told to do so. Second, it’s because we should want to do so. Children come to their father for advice; we can do that with God. Children ask for help; we can do that with the Lord. Children ask for that which they need; we can do that, too. Children say “thank you,” at least some of the time, children can talk to their parents about anything; so too because Christ is our risen and ascended Savior, Mediator, Brother, we’re free to come to our heavenly Father in prayer, too. Talk about anything and everything.
ANNOUNCER: And also to praise Him.
KLAUS: Indeed, yes. We can do all of these things, and then knowing that our heavenly Father knows best, we’re content to say as Jesus did, “Thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.”
ANNOUNCER: Thank you, Pastor Klaus. And we thank our listener for that question.